Articulating Animaton
I was in my character animation class on Monday when my professor showed us a few "behind the scenes" clips from Disney’s Tarzan. I forget who was doing the talking, whether it was an animator, director or some kind of animation supervisor but he was talking about the scene in which Tarzan meets Jane for the first time.
He said the scene is supposed to convey Tarzan seeing someone like him for the first time in his life. How do you convey that on screen? The man said he looked back on his life to a time when he saw someone like him. He remembered his daughter’s birth and recalled the first time the doctor put her in his arms. He said he looked into his daughter’s eyes and realized those were his eyes. He saw himself in her face. Later on when the movie was released, he said to his daughter, "You know, in the scene where Tarzan meets Jane, that’s not him looking at her. That’s me looking at you." I thought that was such a beautiful statement.
And that kind of beauty reminds me of why I wanted to get into animation in the first place. I gotta say, I think animation would serve two purposes. It would help me and help me help others. I’ve always wanted to move people, to change their perceptions and make them think. People say I over think things but I believe that people generally tend to under think. It’s been said that you can trick people into learning something by entertaining them. It works out perfectly because I love to entertain people and I love to teach people. It’s the best feeling when I can make someone laugh. It’s equally as amazing when I can crack open their tiny little heads and let a little learning flow in and swell their skulls. I am certainly no genius nor am I the most brilliant mind but I do think that for someone who came from Podunkville, Alabama, I am pretty open minded.
There’s something about life and death that intrigues me. Many of my long time readers know I’m fond of dead things but I also like life as well, although I don’t explore it as much as the former. I think that’s another reason why I’m obsessed with zombies. It explores my fascination with these states of existence (or non existence). And as an animator, it is my job to bring characters to life. I am Frankenstein, creating my creature with pens and pencils instead of nuts and bolts. I am the electricity that sparks a heart beat. It’s incredibly satisfying to start off with nothing, to literally create a character from scratch, beginning with a blank sheet of paper and suddenly fleshing out a full figure. When it’s all captured and sound is added, you’ve just created something of your very own, something that can be considered living and breathing and believable, if you did it correctly, of course.
It’s a power trip, I won’t lie. Here, I’ve just created this thing that can walk and talk and do anything else I want it to do. And I want it to make people laugh. I want it to make people cry. I want it to reach out and entertain and educate. I want it to jump off the page and jump into the minds and hearts of the viewers. This is my tool to teach.
And not to take away from animation but this is also why I like writing. I can create characters on the page just the same as animating, only using words instead of lines. And writing is a natural part of animation. I still struggle with which path I should take. I realize that I could always do both but that seems like a monumental task right now. Trying to break into writing or animating will be hard enough, even more so if I try to do both. There are times when I think writing is the way to go. It’s funny because sometimes I want to abandon my degree and pursue something I have not been officially taught how to do properly. It’s most likely because I have little faith in my animation abilities. I’m going to be graduating in three weeks and in many ways, I feel like I’m just getting started with animation. I haven’t learned a fraction of what I would need to be successful. I feel I have more of a chance with writing. I’ve actually been writing longer than animating and I suppose that’s the reason why I feel more confident in my writing abilities. That can only mean that I should continue animating until I become as confident with that as I am with my writing.
No matter what I end up doing, I just want to make some kind of difference. And I want to be heard. For so long I have felt so silent and unknown. I want to be acknowledged. I want others to realize who I am and what I’m about. I’ve gone unnoticed for so long and I’m tired of being overlooked. I’m not necessarily looking for attention, just recognition.
Recognize who I am. See yourself in me.